Is “The Grid Of The Future” Running In Denmark?

Danish Technical University graduate student Alexander Hermann pulls up power flow diagrams for the island of Bornholm in the grid control room at PowerLabDK.

Denmark has a lofty goal for its power sector—to be fully renewable by 2030.

The country is already well on its way there; last year, 40 percent of Denmark’s electricity came from wind energy. But getting to 100 percent poses new challenges, and is going to require new solutions.

The tiny Danish island of Bornholm, which has dubbed itself the “Bright Green Test Island,” is set to play an important role in finding those innovative answers.

This reporting was supported in part by a grant from the Heinrich Böll Foundation.

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Denmark gets some 40 percent of its power from wind energy, but it’s aiming for even more—going fully renewable by 2030. Getting there means big changes not only to the way energy is produced, but also the ways it's consumed.